Author Archives: Arab America

Every few years, New York politicians jet off to Israel on the dime of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) to tour the region–including West Bank settlements–and bolster New York-Israel ties. The trips garner attention in the local press, but there is usually no visible opposition.

On February 15, a group of New York City Council members, including members of the Progressive Caucus, will go on what has become a ritual trip. But what has changed this year is that activists are trying to make the free tour of Israel an issue.

A vocal coalition has arisen to call on New York City Council members to spurn the free trip organized by the JCRC, an influential communal organization with close ties to government officials.

40 groups ranging from Jewish Voice for Peace to Al-Awda NY to the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence have held press conferences on the steps of City Hall and sent letters to legislators to denounce the trip in an effort to generate public pressure.

The activists say it is unseemly to tour Israel following the summer attack on the Gaza Strip, and have pointed out the history of partnership between the New York Police Department (NYPD) and Israeli security forces at a time of national ferment against police brutality, protest sparked in part by the death of Eric Garner, who was choked to death by a New York cop. A separate letter from the Jews Against Islamophobia Coalition urges City Council members to stay away from the trip because of the JCRC’s endorsement of anti-Muslim practices, like the NYPD’s surveillance of Muslim communities.

The campaign is trying to politicize support for Israel–a heavy lift in New York (and the U.S.), but one that is gaining traction, particularly among Democrats and young people. 

“We think that it is inappropriate for people elected in New York City to act–for whatever level of government–to act as if part of their job is to defend Israel, when in fact there are many points of view in New York City on the Israeli occupation,” said Leslie Cagan, a member of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, which is part of the coalition. 

Source: mondoweiss.net

On January 1, there was a particularly brutal firefight in Raqqa, ISIS’s capital in Syria. According to al Jazeera, the extremist group beat back a pair of helicopters, packed with commandos that were attempting to land in Raqqa. Twenty vehicles belonging to ISIS were destroyed in the melee, a Pentagon press release later noted.

The fighting was especially tough because the stakes were especially high, according to local activists and regional reports. A Jordanian pilot had crashed in the area days before, on Christmas Eve. This was the rescue mission, they say.

“The Jordanians tried to free the pilot on Jan. 1,” Abu Ibrahim Raqqawi told The Daily Beast. Raqqawi is the name used by a member of Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, a coalition of activists reporting on crimes committed by the Assad regime and ISIS activity from inside of Syria. A source close to Jordanian intelligence also told The Daily Beast that a rescue mission was mounted on January 1, but provided no details.
The kingdom of Jordan hasn’t commented officially on the alleged rescue mission while Pentagon officials told The Daily Beast that if there was an operation it did not involve the U.S. But Raqqawi’s account matches with local press reports of a hostage retrieval mission gone wrong. And Raqqawi has had an especially clear view of the Syrian conflict. While the rest of the world was still operating under the assumption that the pilot, Muadh al-Kasasbeh, was alive, Raqqawi was the first to report that Kasasbeh had in fact been killed, burned to death just days after the alleged attempt to snatch him.

“The city of al-Raqqa witnessed an unusually intense aerial campaign conducted by coalition fighter jets,” Raqqawi reported on Jan. 2.

“As the jets were pounding the area,” Raqqawi wrote, “helicopter gunships attempted to make an airborne-landing operation.”

Source: www.thedailybeast.com

An estimated 2,300 Palestinians in Gaza were killed during the summer assault by Israel. Each one was a mother, father, brother, sister, friend or spouse to someone left behind, and their deep feeling of grieving and loss is still palpable – almost like the phantom pain after the amputation of an arm or leg. Yet the stories behind these numbers have not been told.

In a Gaza war diary to be published by the UK’s Comma Press at the end of February, Atef Abu Saif writes:

Imagine what it is like to be converted into a number. That you are not a unique, living, breathing, laughing, loving individual. You are merely a digit in a much larger number, one that just keeps on growing. Your entire life is reduced to a number. When a human being is made into a number, his or her story disappears…Nobody asks to hear the stories behind these numbers. Nobody uncovers the beauty of the lives they led – the beauty that vanishes with every attack, disappearing behind a thick, opaque wall of numbers.

A new project called We Are Not Numbers is about to launch that is designed to attract attention for those stories – both their beauty and their tragedy. I was inspired to create this platform for helping developing writers in Gaza share their stories by a young man named Ahmed Alnaouq. He lives in Deir al-Balah, in the center of Gaza – a town where I spent many happy days with one of my “adopted families.”

Ahmed Alnaouq

Although I first met the 20-year-old English literature major two years ago, I had lost touch with him until just after the summer war. Our Facebook chat went this way: “How are you?” I asked, rather inanely. “I am fine, doing well. How about you?” Ahmed responded. I could tell something was wrong, so I shot back, “Don’t just say ‘fine.’ Tell me something real.” The barriers down, he told me the truth: “I extremely miss my brother. I go to his grave all the time, and when I am alone, I burst out crying.”

Ahmed’s older brother, Ayman, was killed during the assault that Israel called “Operation Protective Edge” (perhaps better labeled “Operation Genocidal Edge”). The two were inseparable, and Ayman had been the primary breadwinner for the family due to his father’s heart ailment. Given Ahmed’s passion for writing and burning desire to master the English language (thus his major – a popular one in Gaza), I encouraged him to write about his brother, to celebrate him, rather than try to hide his grief from me. He was hesitant at first, given my “Western” identity. It turns out that Ayman was a resistance fighter with the Al-Qassam Brigades – so quickly assumed to be “terrorists” even by many pro-Palestinian activists. Yet the few little tidbits of information Ahmed shared made me want to get to know him better. Ayman clearly had played a very positive role in Ahmed’s life, and there was a reason why fighting the Israeli occupation with whatever weapons were at hand seemed to be the only option to the young man. It was, I believed, a critical story to tell – and share.

Source: mondoweiss.net

llowing a wave of criticism over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned address to Congress in March, a group of pro-Israel Democrats met with Israel’s ambassador on Wednesday to discuss postponing the speech.

“If they can find ways to relieve some of the concerns over timing, it might be better,” Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), the organizer of the meeting, told reporters on Capitol Hill.

“The conversation was: ‘What do we need to do in order to get back to the substance [of the U.S.-Israel relationship] so that you’re not writing about the thumb in the eye and the F-yous,’” he said.

A growing number of Democrats in recent days have privately, or in some cases publicly, threatened to boycott Netanyahu’s speech, which was devised by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer to offer the prime minister a soapbox to criticize the Obama administration’s international negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program.

Seven Jewish Democratic lawmakers — Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Ted Deutch of Florida, Nita Lowey, Jerry Nadler and Israel of New York, Sander Levin of Michigan, and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois — attended the meeting, according to one official who was there.

Israel noted that the “bad optics” of Netanyahu’s planned visit, which comes days away from Israel’s March 17 national elections, are turning the Jewish state into a “political football.”

“The timing of this and the speaker’s decision not to consult with the president is distracting us from the important substance of the negotiations and our relationship with Israel,” the congressman said.

Israel said the group discussed whether Netanyahu’s speech could be rescheduled for April, and no final decision was made. Canceling the speech outright was not considered, he said.

White House officials remain furious with Netanyahu for failing to notify the administration about the address to Congress, a breach of diplomatic protocol. The prime minister has had a tense relationship with the White House, and agreed to the speech shortly after his government held several high-level discussions with Obama aides, including one multi-hour meeting between Dermer and Secretary of State John Kerry.

In retaliation, the White House has publicly said it will not meet with Netanyahu when he comes to Washington, and Vice President Joe Biden has not committed to attending the joint session.

The public riff has forced Democrats to pick sides between Israel and the White House, a tough decision for even some of the most hawkish pro-Israel supporters.

Behind the scenes, the powerful pro-Israel lobbying outfit, AIPAC, is pushing lawmakers to support the Netanyahu address, while the dovish, but less-connected, pro-Israel group J Street opposes the visit.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), who often relishes opportunities to break with the White House on Israel, told Foreign Policy on Wednesday that a delay could be beneficial. “Washington is more beautiful during April — you’ve got cherry blossoms,” he said.

Source: foreignpolicy.com

In the upcoming book of the United States President Barack Obama, his chief campaign advisor David Axelrod has revealed the details of a meeting between Steve Jobs and Obama where the President got a sneak peek of Apple’s original iPhone before it was released.

According to the Verge, in Obama’s book Believer: My Forty Years in Politics, Alexrod gives a detailed description of Obama’s meeting with Jobs in 2007.

Alexrod writes that after their meeting, Obama said that “If it were legal, I would buy a boatload of Apple stock”.

Obama also said that Apple was going to be “really big”, according to Alexrod. 

Source: www.dnaindia.com

The hashtag #MuslimMeeting has started to trend on Twitter after a meeting President Barack Obama held with American Muslim leaders Wednesday afternoon. Since then American Muslims have used the hashtag to poke fun at conservative outlets that have questioned the meeting’s intentions and participants.

 “At today’s #MuslimMeeting, Dearborn, MI was voted as the new capital of the US. Sorry, what was I thinking? No vote. It was done by fatwa,” Hind Makki, leadership associate at the Interfaith Youth Core, tweeted.

“At the secret #MuslimMeeting we established Fremont, CA as America’s first (but not last) ‘no-go zone,’” Katie Miranda, an Arab-American cartoonist from Portland, Oregon, tweeted.

While the names of the leaders invited to the meeting have not been released, a White House press statement said domestic and foreign policy issues were discussed, including anti-Muslim violence, discrimination, hate crime prosecution and needing to counter the terror group known as the Islamic State.

Conservative outlets have criticized the meeting, particularly because the American Muslim leaders have not been identified. Dean Obeidallah, an American comedian of Palestinian descent, wrote in an article for the Daily Beast Wednesday that he was among the 15 leaders at the meeting.

“There are certain ground rules to these meetings, so I can’t disclose everything,” Obeidallah wrote, adding that he could share the comments he made.

“My comments were specific to the Republican elected officials who have made demonizing Muslims an increasingly visible part of their platform,” Obeidallah said.

Examples he gave were Oklahoma state Rep. John Bennett, who called American Muslims a “cancer that must be cut out of the American society.” Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., who said Islam is not a religion and therefore “does not deserve First Amendment protection.” He also mentioned Texas state Rep. Molly White who wrote a Facebook post last week telling Muslim Americans who visit her office in the state capitol they should first pledge allegiance to the United States and condemn terrorism.

“My point was that while bigotry from certain Republicans is nothing new, I’m alarmed about the Democratic response to these comments. What is the Democrats’ response, you ask? Simple: silence,” Obeidallah said.

Source: www.ibtimes.com

A Muslim mom says she was harassed onboard a Delta Air Lines flight for wearing a hijab, and that Delta staff failed to come to her defense.

Darlene Hider, 32, says she wants an apology from the airline, but she’s ready to forgive.

“This m…

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

A group of 63 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from across the five biggest political blocs in the parliament have called on European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to suspend the EU-Israel “association agreement.”

The association agreement facilitates largely unrestricted trade between the EU and Israel, allowing Israel to participate in a wide range of the EU’s programs. It also permits Israeli arms companies to receive EU funding.  

The MEPs argue that allowing the agreement to stay in place despite Israel’s recent massacre of Palestinians in Gaza “sends Israel the message that its violations of basic principles of human rights will be tolerated.”

This appeal for tough action against Israel is one of the most widely-supported initiatives from European parliamentarians in recent years. It follows the publication in December of a statement calling for the suspension of the association agreement that was signed by more than 300 groups across Europe, including some of the continent’s biggest trade unions, political parties and non-governmental organizations. 

Also in December, the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine, an umbrella group of European solidarity campaigns, set up a website to make it easy for people to lobby their MEPs on the issue of EU-Israel ties. 

Source: electronicintifada.net

Tunisia’s parliament has approved a unity government led by the secular Nidaa Tounes party and including its Islamist rivals, in the latest step in its transition to full democracy following a 2011 uprising.
The cabinet headed by Prime Minister Habib Essid, which includes members of his secularist Nidaa Tounes party and the Islamist Ennahda party, was approved on Thursday by 166 members of the 217-seat parliament.

Thirty members opposed while eight abstained, as Essid, whose cabinet includes ministers from four parties, promised “work and nothing but work” on the country’s economic and security problems.
Parliament speaker Mohamed Ennaceur welcomed what he called “a comfortable majority” in the vote of confidence.
Essid’s earlier attempt to form a government consisting of just his Nidaa Tounes party and one other party was scrapped after it became clear it would lose the vote of confidence.

It is the first government to be formed after the North African country’s first free presidential and parliamentary elections last year.

Example of democracy

Nidaa Tounes, the winner of parliamentary elections last October, holds six portfolios, including the foreign ministry, while the interior, defence and justice portfolios go to independents.
Ennahda takes the labour ministry and three secretary of state posts.
Al Jazeera’s Nazannine Moshiri, reporting from Tunis, said: “The main two parties in the country are now in government, and also the two other smaller parties which are quiet popular here, that has weakened the opposition and a lot of people are saying this is almosty like a one party state.

“At the same time most Tunisians want this new government, whoever it includes, to get on with the job of solving problems of its country which include the economy, the joblessness and social problems which led to the revolution in the first place and the new additional problems of the last four years which deals with security”.

Moshiri also said that Tunisians see this as an example of democracy, the fact that parliament actually has agreed on this coalition government going forward.

Tunisians overthrew their dictator in 2011 and the ensuing four years of transition have been stormy.

Source: www.aljazeera.com

Mosques and churches around the Kingdom held prayers on Wednesday in memory of air force pilot Muath Kasasbeh, who was killed by  the terrorist group Daesh, or the so-called Islamic State (IS). Thousands of Muslims performed “prayers for the absent” at mosques, while churches held special evening ceremonies and rang their bells in honour of … Continued

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered a night-time curfew in place in Baghdad for years to be lifted beginning on Saturday.

The announcement came after Mr Abadi was briefed by security services.

Iraq has long used curfews to try to curb violence, and analysts say the latest move marks a major policy shift.

While Baghdad is still hit by regular suicide bombings, the threat to the capital from Islamic State (IS) militants is viewed to have subsided.

Iraq’s army is battling IS militants who have seized large swathes of territory outside of Baghdad.

In the city itself, at least 10 people were killed as a series of explosions rocked the capital on Tuesday.

But Mr Abadi wants life in Iraq to return to normal as far as possible “despite the existence of a state of war,” his spokesman Rafid Jaboori said.

The lifting of restrictions is “part of the response to terrorism and the war against it,” he added.

Welcome news
The night-time curfew has been in place in the capital since 2004. It has varied in length, but was most recently imposed between midnight and 05:00.

The prime minister, who came to power in September 2014, has also ordered the reopening of several major streets in the city.

The decision was taken “in order to facilitate the movement of citizens,” according to a government statement.

The news will be welcomed by many in Baghdad as it will make make life seem a little more normal, says BBC Middle East analyst Sebastian Usher.

A curfew is also reported to have been lifted in Karbala, south of Baghdad, with the possibility of more being lifted in other provinces.

Despite this, a curfew has been newly imposed in the northern city of Kirkuk amid threats of an IS assault.

Source: www.bbc.com

Activists waving Palestinian flags reportedly heckled Jewish students at the University of California, Davis, and chanted “Allahu Akbar” during a student government vote last week to call on the school to boycott Israel. The student government resolution passed 8-2 Thursday and formally recommends the university divest from companies who do business with Israel, such as … Continued